Queen of the Forgotten
by Plastic Rapture
Summary: After an injury, Ty Lee is forced to leave her tour with Cirque du Soleil and recover. She expects moving back to her hometown after years away will be dull and predictable, but then she discovers that memories can be misleading, people aren't always who they say they are and nothing is ever as it seems. [Partial Modern AU]
1. Chapter 1

**Queen of the Forgotten**

 **by PlasticRapture**

* * *

 **Prologue**

Ty Lee always thought she was ordinary.

While she was adventurous, talented and took the risks of walking tightropes on her hands with no regard for safety, she knew she was really no different from any other human being. Everyone lives, breathes dies and goes in and out of the world the same way.

Ty Lee never _wanted_ to be ordinary.

She was raised with sisters, sets of twins. She went to school and got average grades, that probably would be below average if she took the type of classes that you could fail. And she went to the state college, then, well, instead of settling down, she decided to stop being ordinary and ran off to the city to pursue her passion.

Then, once she was in Cirque du Soleil, Ty Lee was ordinary again. She was not special among all of those talented people, but she knew how to grin and bear it.

Ty Lee is not ordinary anymore.

She no longer will die, she no longer is in the same world that she was born into. Ty Lee does not have to think about traffic or grocery lists or anything else like that again. She does not have to be a normal, mousy-haired girl in her mid twenties, moving and grabbing a secure job to become a full _adult_.

Her true love changed her, and Carolyn still wears her bloodied wedding dress as the guards in metal armor with _fire_ on their hands lead her through a dimly lit manor somewhere in this eerie, strange Universe.

Ty Lee feels strongly that something wicked is about to happen. The woman leading the guards, who roughly had carried Ty Lee after the painful transition, is one of the immortal, one like Ty Lee's love.

That love, that love that Ty Lee hopes is looking for her. Too many times of late she has played the damsel in distress, even when remembering the skills of combat that she apparently once had.

But she loves Azula more strongly than she has loved anything in her life. She thinks of her true love: beautiful beyond belief, with words that entrance Ty Lee, a warm, fiery embrace and electrifying sex. She hopes her mind remains on the painless memories of Azula if Mai decides to burn her or kill her some other way.

They reach a room of cold, gray stone and a gorgeous view of the night sky and indigo sea. There is a blue fire burning that Ty Lee remembers Azula showing her, and at that moment, the direction of her life was set in stone.

"She's back, princess," Mai says into the flames, and Ty Lee squints in confusion. "And now you can wake and claim your world or revenge or whatever."

Okay, now Ty Lee is totally confused.

"Returned?" she whispers. No one responds.

Ty Lee gazes forward, squinting even harder into the fire as if it will make her vision clearer. She knows that now that she is in this world, things will change. But leaving her fiancee. . .

The woman who was made into shadows by the cerulean flames walks towards the blue light, and Ty Lee bites down hard on her lower lip. Because it is, yes, her love. Ty Lee exhales in relief, before realizing the fact that this means her love has been lying to her for a very long time.

The guards hold her tightly, despite the fact that she is not struggling, as Azula's figure becomes clearer. Beautiful; as she is in the real. . . or _not_ real world; Ty Lee is not sure. Her skin is ivory, her hair pitch black and smooth, face chiseled and cold, full, red lips and glowing golden eyes superhuman. The air seems to thicken around the princess as she walks forward from the palace as if rising from a crypt.

Ty Lee knows that the world is in danger, like her little town, and she knows it is in danger from a person who had promised to _help_ her. She is also now uncertain if she is in danger or not, seeing as Azula has decided to just destroy the trust between them without a second thought. This shadow those with memories went on about was locked away millennia ago for good reason. And now, the darkness and unease that hung like fog over Ty Lee's dream wedding to Azula are no longer theories.

They are very real.

"It was such a hassle getting you here," Azula purrs before walking to Ty Lee and kissing her lips.

She bites down, gently, and Ty Lee closes her eyes.

* * *

 **Chapter One**

The death adder slithers up Ty Lee's arm. Its deadly, serpentine eyes are focused on her. One bite could kill, but so far it has not decided to strike. Ty Lee's heart beats rapidly, _thu-thump, thu-tump, thu-thump_. It feels like a trap for James Bond, a snake circling around her body.

"Okay, okay, I'm done now," Ty Lee squeaks, her eyes flashing in fright.

Her friend Fi laughs and Ty Lee glares at her.

"I'm coming," Fiona says sweetly before moving at a _super intentionally slow_ pace towards the acrobat. "It's not my fault that you needed to play with the dangerous snake."

FiFi snickers as she grabs it by the mid-section and returns it to its proper cage. She smirks at the serpent and it sniffs the air. Quietly, it coils up and ignores the fact that it was just free.

"You shouldn't play with those things," Ty Lee grumbles, trying to hide that she was truly scared while FiFi drops a meal into a lizard's enclosure. "It's gonna kill you one day! Our four pet snakes was _totally not_ in the roomie agreement."

"But you love Unagi so much," Fi says with a grin. "You even named her. "And also, I'm pretty sure you jumping through rings of fire is way more dangerous than my _very deadly_ herpetology degree."

" _Ma_ ybe." Ty Lee waves her hand dismissively. "I've done like so much training."

Fi cocks an eyebrow. "I've done four years in school."

"I did learn my lesson about rings of fire," Ty Lee sighs as she looks at her leg wrappings. FiFi frowns when she sees that and looks like she regrets teasing Ty Lee. She brought her to visit the dangerous animal show to distract her, not to make her feel worse about having to go home.

Ty Lee glares at her wound every time she remembers it.

"And now you're back off to Smallville. I'm gonna miss your reckless disregard for safety protocol," Fi says as cheerily as possible, even though her smile is sad. Ty Lee bites her lip.

Ty Lee is twenty-five and probably should have quit the circus by now anyway. She should go back to her family, and her old friends, as much as bouncing from place to place with FiFi and interchangeable faces and scenery is.

"I'm gonna miss you," Fiona says, her eyes intently focused on an albino peacock so that she does not have to meet Ty Lee's cartoon-eye gaze.

"I know," Ty Lee replies smugly and Fi snorts. Quietly, Ty Lee adds, "I'll miss you too."

Ty Lee picks at her bandage and forces another smile.

 **.**

After her peaceful night, Ty Lee spends the day traveling in a blur.

When the plane finally lands at LAX, she gets out, her legs wobbly as she tries to properly use her crutches. She grimaces in frustration as she fumbles with them, wanting to scream about how she really is super graceful and not this much of a klutz.

At the entrance, Ty Lee sees her friend from school awaiting her, with a bright grin on his face. He was always there, especially when Ty Lee's family was not. He was military, and when Ty Lee had a horrible, abusive boyfriend, he was the only one who would take her in until the police managed to do _something_.

"Sokka!" Ty Lee cheers, hobbling over to him for a quick hug. He smiles at her and waves. "How is everybody?"

"Good. They're really good." He rubs his neck, a bit awkwardly. She feels it too, how strange it is to be looking at somebody you haven't seen in so long, especially somebody who was such a good friend.

Last time Ty Lee saw him was he and Suki's wedding, and they are so adorably happy together. They have a little kid, Elliot or Ellie or gosh, something with an _E_. Ty Lee hopes she doesn't have to ask.

"How's the shop?" Ty Lee asks as they walk towards the car.

"Not bad. How are the. . . braids?" Sokka clearly was going to say something about the acrobatics, and now Ty Lee's mouth feels dry. Everyone is going to dance around it, because it was the only thing that Ty Lee could _do_.

"Hopefully fine." She tries to get her many pink suitcases into the back, but Sokka can't watch her struggle, and so he does it while she clenches her jaw and hobbles over to go strap herself into the passenger seat.

Ty Lee just pouts, yanks down the passenger seat mirror and sees the fly fishing hooks jabbed into it like decorations. They would usually make her laugh, but she is putting on lipstick, fixing her hair and just trying not to look like a dumb, _ordinary_ failure who tried to be special and screwed up.

She is super glad Sokka came instead of Suki, because he doesn't talk much, and she can just look at California breeze by, and not be interrogated.

 **.**

Ty Lee's town was always so _plain_ and _boring_ in her memories. Up closer to Oregon, tucked near the woods. It is an easy place to overlook ─ no; it is an impossible place to find. When she arrives, however, she sees the cute Mom and Pop Shops without a Target or a strip mall or a Starbucks. Everyone waves, knows each other's names.

It is a cute place, yet, Ty Lee has this strange, aching feeling inside of her gut that something is _off_. Maybe she just has her mind addled by nostalgia, but everyone looks grim and concerned.

"Did people just get bad news?" Ty Lee asks and Sokka furrows his brow. "Nah, not really." He shrugs and keeps driving as the light drizzle of rain becomes fiercer. "So, you got set up in that weird abandoned place? You remember when. . . oh. . ."

Sokka feels like a moron again, as he remembers him and his stupid fucking ponytail he thought was so _metal_. He and his sister, and Suki, and Aang, and Zuko and Toph would get into so much trouble in town, and he often forgets that his friends he made later in life weren't always around to have those adventures.

"Yeah, I remember it was the weird witch house, right? The one that girl lived in." Ty Lee scrunches up her face as she tries to remember her.

"She moved out and moved to, uh, Portland, I think." Sokka nods, even though he can't really remember.

"I thought she got sent to an asylum?"

"Well, yeah, I also heard that she was a _witch_ , remember?" Sokka turns the corner and Ty Lee runs her fingertips along the window, following the raindrops on the outside of it. "It's a small town and people talk. People. . . have talked about you a bit too, so uh. . ."

"It's fine," Ty Lee says, waving her hand. She has no worries, because she does not want to stay here very long.

Ty Lee sees another car in the driveway of the house she bought when they arrive. Her family offered her a place to stay, but it was clearly not actually welcoming. Out on the porch, hiding from the rain, are Aang, Suki and the little kid whose name starts with E.

And Ty Lee hugs them both.

"Do you have the key?" Suki asks, her teeth chattering like a typewriter. Sokka pulls off his light blue aviator jacket and tosses it to her; she catches it quickly and Ty Lee rummages around in her pricey pink purse for the key. There it is, weird, knobby and nothing like the hotel room keys she has gotten used to.

She might have saved one with girls in lingerie from a hotel in Las Vegas inside of her wallet. By "accident".

The five of them walk inside after Ty Lee manages to unlock it, and they all look around in disgust save for Aang.

"You can always stay with me," Suki offers, staring at the decrepit front hall in distaste. How this was sold, she has no idea.

"I'm an adult," Ty Lee says, flicking on the set of lights with one hand. They flicker first before all illuminating the front rooms. It does not make the house look any better, as Ty Lee had hoped, but it is okay. "I can figure out how to decorate and take care of it and live on my own and stuff."

Aang adds, "It can be really freeing to get rid of worldly possessions and just. . . _fly_ and stuff."

Ty Lee gives him a toothy grin, despite knowing just how much furniture and how many gift certificates for furniture are in her huge set of matching pink suitcases. "You're super right."

Suki shrugs and starts walking through the halls. "The offer still stands. Sokka and I have an extra room."

"Thanks," Ty Lee says, smiling. "You can help me unpack if you want to."

 **.**

Far away from where a gaggle of awkward people are unpacking, Mai is sitting, very bored, in the Nightclub of the Damned. She studies her long, manicured and black fingernails as her employees clean up after last night's dull festivities. She ignores her headache that refuses to go away, and ignores the half empty champagne flute with gross lukewarm orange juice in it that she holds loosely in her left hand.

Her most recent fling, some boring girl from this world with an equally boring name, is sitting next to her, talking, while Mai does not listen.

Mai hates this place. It is not fun, and whoever said that owning a nightclub would be fun was an _idiot_. She just wants to get through this morning, and then take a few naps.

But then someone appears behind her.

"Did someone leave a window open or did Princess Azula just walk in?" Mai asks with a very halfhearted and unfinished sarcastic shiver. She turns around to face the woman who just kind of _appeared_.

"It would do you well to respect authority," Azula says coldly and Mai just shrugs.

"What are you doing in my club. . . _your highness_ ," Mai says with a sloppy bow. Azula's upper lip curls like a tiger-cougar's.

"Katara is in town," Azula says sharply and Mai does not know what to say.

"What does she want? I thought she moved to New York after leaving that stupid containment facility." Mai sets down her glass. She hates orange juice.

"Well obviously someone high profile is in town. Someone people on the other side is concerned about."

"Someone who doesn't have a double." They have had this conversation too many times.

"Mhm."

"Right. You like making lists. Get to it." Mai grunts.

"Do you honestly treat this so casually? You are sitting here so bored and griping about being stuck here, and someone could very easily be walking right into our hands, and you have no desire to try to catch them." Azula seems surprised by Mai's apathy, and it is kind of cute.

"Look, I don't know why you're coming to me. I've washed my hands of politics and I'm really done. It's hopeless and too much effort for no results." Mai sighs and rolls her amber eyes as her cute little this-dumb-world friend looks scared and confused.

"You may be brooding with angst and apathy towards. . . _everything_ but I am in no mood for another war. I'm staying here." Azula's eyes are dedicated, and Mai is certain that she is not being fully honest about whoever is in town.

"Help yourself to wherever you want to stay," Mai sighs, and returns to watching other people work as if nothing had happened.

 **.**

Ty Lee is eating lunch at the old diner with Sokka and Suki. It's an interesting and fun place with a weird theme Ty Lee can't quite place a finger on. It's like an oriental wild west with a lot of green and rocks, but also some homage to cowboys. She holds a chocolate flavored beer that is surprisingly good, and picks halfheartedly at French Fries.

"So, Ellie is really rambunctious." Ty Lee smiles so fiercely that her eyes are forced closed.

"Good, good," Sokka says, smiling.

"I know this is soon to ask, but are you with anybody?" Suki inquires, _of course_ , picking up her fork.

Ty Lee feels a little anxious, and messes with her skirt. "No," she says, as if she could not be _more_ of a screw up.

"So, my sister is also single and looking. She came back in town the other day," Sokka says and Suki's eyes widen slightly.

"You're right," she says, a little too loudly and Ty Lee thinks that they may have planned this. "They'd be good with each other."

"You're kidding. A blind date?" Ty Lee asks, snorting.

"Nah. Come hiking with us Saturday. Katara would love to come," Sokka says, and he will not take no for answer.

"I think you're forgetting my stupid crutches," Ty Lee says with a pout. She glowers at the crutches resting on the side of the table. "I totally can't hike."

Ty Lee bats her eyelashes in hopes that they will say no, but they both are the most stubborn people that Ty Lee has ever met in her life. She does not really remember a time before being friends with them, even if they didn't know her in school.

"We can do a very gentle hike," Suki replies in a teasing tone, tapping Ty Lee's shoulder with the palm of her hand.

"I'm just back in town and you're already forcing me into the wilderness. Of course," Ty Lee says with a giggle, smirking and taking a sip of her beer. "Maybe I will do it."

Katara always was kinda hot.

 **.**

Ty Lee's first dream is that night. It feels more vivid and more real than any memory she has ever had before.

She can feel the heat of steam against her, and can feel knots of tension in her body. Her body moves as she feels panic in her chest and her fists collide with a crisp, clear figure of a girl she has never seen before. The twisting emotions of agony in her are so strong that she wakes with tears rolling from her eyes.

It is a single image, just one. And a _dream_ too. But it feels more jarring than any fall she has taken from incredible heights.


	2. Chapter 2

**Chapter Two**

* * *

On Friday, Ty Lee decides that she hates crutches, and she is done with them. She will probably have to nurse her leg a little bit, but looking at her injury, and looking at this grim, boring town is making her so miserable.

She once was riding her bike, and, while she is an amazing acrobat and on a trampoline or wire or yard can do incredible feats, she is not so great at bikes. Anyway, she once was riding her bike and hit a mailbox, and she punctured her artery.

Ty Lee couldn't move, she hated it, and she hated how annoyed her sisters were to help her at all. So, despite the physical therapy she was prescribed, she just forced herself to walk.

Sheer willpower. It felt weirdly naturally.

It takes her all afternoon, and it hurts. But she finally manages to figure out how to get around the crutches with the right shoe choice and the tricks of balance she learned as a little kid in gymnastics and as a bright eyed, bushy-tailed performer.

All the same, the hiking still seems like a terrible idea. She is just glad to have the mobility to not feel so freaked out by her dreams.

And maybe to meet this Katara...

 **.**

On Saturday, Ty Lee wakes up at four in the morning. The sky is dark and nearly starless and rain drizzles from grey clouds. around her room, dressing in jeans, a t-shirt and a black windbreaker. She grabs her small backpack of hiking supplies and creeps down the stairs.

She grabs a tall bottle of water from the fridge and the iced coffee she prepared. As soon as she finishes her coffee, she hears a car arrive. Prompted by the yellow lights, Ty Lee hurries outside and finds a Jeep with Sokka and Suki sitting in the front. They both jump out and hug Ty Lee tightly.

Ty Lee clambers into the back seat and finds a startlingly beautiful face beside her. Maybe she doesn't hate being set up by her friends. But then Ty Lee suddenly feels a sharp ache in a place she was not expecting.

While Ty Lee anticipated her leg being sore, she did not figure that her head would feel like it was splitting. Her mouth is dry as she feels like she has been stabbed between the eyes.

A sudden flood of memories that make no sense, because Ty Lee has never seen them before and has nothing to compare them too make her falter.

But no one notices. Save perhaps Katara, because she is looking right at Ty Lee as Sokka starts driving and Suki seems to have not even noticed it.

"Hey, Ty Lee," Katara says, smiling and extending a dark hand.

Ty Lee takes a deep breath. "Hey, Katara. I... remember you from school."

 _You were the loud one with all the opinions who I rolled my eyes at all the time because you kept going on and on and on and on and on about all of that... stuff._

A rather odd expression crosses Katara's face. Ty Lee waits patiently for response. She does not want to blow this.

"I remember you too. Kinda," Katara replies smoothly as the car starts.

Well, Ty Lee gets that response more often than she'd like, and so she nods, unable to supply anything interesting to say. She watches the dark streets move by as Suki drives. Conversation comes eventually but Ty Lee speaks sparsely. Katara sends her head reeling and fills her with gut wrenching anxiety. Ty Lee has a knack for making stupid remarks and she does not want to look like a fool in front of this instantaneous crush. The power and sensuality from Katara is overbearing, and makes Ty Lee feel like a dumb teenage girl.

They finally arrive in Ashland with the sun piercing through a blanket of clouds. The group drives through the forest and parks in front of a well-concealed nature trail. Ty Lee jumps out and stretches her legs, seizing her bag and throwing it over her shoulder.

"You know this trail right?" Ty Lee asks Sokka, not finding the idea of being lost pleasant.

"Of course I do. I _always_ know where I'm going. I'm like a human compass." Sokka looks at her like she is insane.

"He has a map," Katara whispers behind him, tapping the glossy, folded up paper she is holding. Ty Lee giggles behind her hand and Katara winks with those big cobalt eyes.

Ones Ty Lee feels like she has seen more recently than school.

Ty Lee walks into the forest with a certain struggle, the sky blacked out by a canopy of dripping trees. Katara walks close to her, infecting Ty Lee with tension and desire. It smells fresh and crisp, the evergreens stunning. Every piece of foliage is alien to her – she has gotten way too used to the city.

"Can...?" Ty Lee does not have to finish her sentence when Katara offers the support.

"Yeah, this hike was an awful idea. But Sokka said you would want to prove you could do it. Awesome that you're off crutches." Katara sounds warm, sweet.

Ty Lee takes a sweet breath.

"I like the idea that less animals here are venomous," Ty Lee says, trying to keep her mind off of the woman beside her. "I spent my first two years with the circus on a cruiseline, and we stopped in Costa Rica to go on tour, and this guy I was working with got bitten by a fer-de-lance. We rushed him to the hospital."

"Did he make it?" Katara asks, brushing a branch away from her face.

"Thankfully yes. I like to tell stories about nature, but it was the stages that were more dangerous," Ty Lee says. "I once got a really awful shock, though, from being a daredevil on the catwalks where the lighting equipment was being set up. I still have the scars on my wrist."

She pauses and rolls up her sleeve, revealing the white scars. Katara peers at it in some kind of admiration, Suki looks queasy and Sokka nods interestedly.

"Those are weird," Suki remarks with a tiny laugh.

"Yeah. It's really unusual the way it branches upwards. They thought I'd just have a mark from the third degree burn, or so they said. But look at how it looks like a tree," Ty Lee says and Katara smiles faintly.

"Like lightning."

"I never asked how you guys know Ty Lee," Katara says, glancing between Sokka and Ty Lee. "She didn't run with our crowd, did she?"

"We went to school together. I set them up," Ty Lee says brightly. And then she hesitates and wiggles her nose; something feels a bit wrong, but she tries to stay cheery and keep her weight half on Katara's sweaty arm.

"She was Best Lesbian at our wedding," Sokka says, laughing and toying with his expedition machete.

"Best Lesbian, huh?" Katara comments with another smirk. "Will he be best straight dude at your wedding?"

"I don't think I'll get married," Ty Lee says, laughing and waving her hand dismissively.

"I'd get married. But I'm about one bad relationship away from just getting a couple of cats," Katara says, treating misfortune with a comic tone.

"Well, you need to stop dating flighty chicks and chasing straight girls. Or breaking a really nice guy like Aang's heart because a really creepy girl comes along and you move across the country for her," Sokka says loudly and Suki slaps his shoulder. "Ouch. Just a word of advice."

Idle conversation fills the next half hour of hiking. Ty Lee is pondering whether Katara would ever be interested in her as Suki jabbers incessantly. She feels foolish: crowds of shadowy onlookers in the audience are easier to deal with than people up close.

"Oo! Oo! We're almost at my favorite spot!" Suki suddenly exclaims, nearly diving off of the trail. She drags Sokka along with her and Katara and Ty Lee race after her.

They walk through thick brush until they come to a cliff. It juts up above a pool of water below, cold, grey, damp stone. Emerald green trees billow on the other side of the water.

Suki sits down on the cliff top, leaning back, her face illuminated by a sunbeam puncturing a wall of clouds. Sokka sits beside her and Ty Lee slides down to sit beside Katara. Her feet touch Suki's as the four friends relax atop the rough rock.

"I'm jumping in," Katara declares, standing up and whipping off her jacket and shirt. Ty Lee's eyes flash wide as Katara undresses down to a bra and underwear. "Oh, come on? Are we the Victorian fashion police? It's freezing; I'm not getting my clothes wet."

"That's a long drop," Ty Lee comments, peering over the cliff.

"Katara can handle it," Suki says assertively and Sokka nudges her, nodding his head at Ty Lee. Before Ty Lee can decipher the odd action, Katara runs off the cliff and plunges down into the crystalline water. "But you should hang back, Ty Lee. Your leg is still really hurt."

It seems as if she falls in slow motion, twirling down with absolute control. Ty Lee has never encountered someone so superhumanly strong and it leaves her in awe. Even the muscular companions in uncharted territory pale in comparison to this small woman.

Katara pokes her head up through the water, gasping for breath. Her teeth are chattering.

"It's fucking cold!" she calls up to her friends before bursting into shaky laughter.

"It's January, stupid!" Sokka yells, grinning. Suki blushes, pursing her lips.

"It's not _that_ bad! Come on! Polar bear swim!" Katara shouts, bobbing up and down in the water.

Sokka takes off his shirt and jeans, running off the edge and diving in. Ty Lee always knew that he was stronger than most biologists, but something has changed. His muscles have changed from toned to rippling, and his strength and control rival Katara. She thought that there was something different in the way he moves.

His splash reaches feet higher than Katara's.

"You look scared," Suki comments as she stands up. "Believe me, you probably shouldn't."

But she winks and Ty Lee wonders if Suki _wants_ Ty Lee to show off. Because everybody knows Ty Lee is that kid who will eat the weird beetle just for everyone to _oo_ and _aww_.

Suki dives into the pool in the same fashion. Ty Lee stares over the edge, stunned at how her old friends have changed in a few years. If she were less skeptical, she would think that they had been overcome by some kind of mutation. Regardless of reality or imagination, Ty Lee knows that she does not pack that kind of punch.

Although her brain warns her, she stands up and strips off her clothes. Suki wolf whistles teasingly and Ty Lee flips her off. Gasping for breath. Ty Lee squeezes her eyes shut and dives off of the edge of the cliff.

First, she lacks control and free falls certainly to her death. Her mind slips away from the forest and to the nightclub in her dream. She is held by arms on the stage, red spotlights on her face. The faceless figure approaches, now revealed to be a woman more beautiful than anyone else in the club. She rips out her throat.

Suddenly, Ty Lee opens her eyes and smoothly hits the pool. She plunges into the icy water, the winds knocked out of her. For a moment, she is under water without breath longer than she imagined possible. Someone's hand grabs her and she is yanked into the crisp winter air.

She finds herself face to face with Katara.

"Nicely done," Katara says, nodding in approval. Ty Lee feels heat fill her chest, combating the cold of the water.

Ty Lee glances around and sees Sokka and Suki splashing each other playfully several feet away. She starts sinking when she stops focusing on staying afloat. Katara grabs her and sets Ty Lee's pale feet on her dark chocolate knees.

"Got you covered," Katara remarks, smirking again.

"How is this so easy for you?" Ty Lee breathes, feeling stupid.

"I'm an athlete. I train all the time," Katara replies, taking Ty Lee into her arms. "Hey, why don't you, uh, relax on my lap a bit." She wiggles her eyebrows with a playful tone and Ty Lee does.

There is a weird pain relief, like there is morphine in the water. But Ty Lee does not question it.

"Figures. I'm a casual adventurer," Ty Lee says, trying not to enjoy her position atop of Katara as much as she does. The sensation of relief and healing is probably some kind of hormonal surge that is out of place here. "Still, I can't believe we're not dead."

"You need to try new things," Katara says, guiding Ty Lee towards shallower water after examining Ty Lee's foot for just a few seconds too long.

Ty Lee stands with her feet on the gravel bottom and is shocked at how much easier it is to press her ankle against the ground. Her torso chills as she exposes herself to the air. Katara follows suit and Ty Lee is left breathless. Her body is stunning, wet cloth stuck to perfectly round cleavage. She quickly looks up and sees that Katara's eyes are equally on her new friend. Ty Lee is glad she put on a push-up bra this morning.

"I'm not a flighty chick," Ty Lee dares to say, spellbound.

Suki coughs and Sokka jabs her. _"Shut up, I know she is but come on..."_

"I'm pretty sure you're not a straight girl either," Katara says, that warmth and confidence, that power making Ty Lee feel hot despite the numbness that must be making it suddenly so easy to walk.

Katara leans forward calmly and presses her lips against Ty Lee's. Fire burning in water. Ty Lee breaks away, remembering the presence of Sokka and Suki. She wades to shore and shivers in the newfound rain. Katara follows.

"You okay?" she asks, her fingers brushing against Ty Lee's hand. Ty Lee welcomes the touch.

"We have an audience," Ty Lee replies, smiling.

Sokka and Suki walk out of the water with pleased expressions. Ty Lee realizes that they were intending for this to happen.

"Time for a climb," Sokka says, heading to the cliff. He easily clambers up, Suki in close pursuit.

Ty Lee walks to the cliff and stares at the daunting rocks. She situates one hand on the closest hold and tries to make her way up. Katara speeds past her as she stumbles, grasping and clawing.

Her foot doesn't protest one time, even though Ty Lee keeps expecting it to. And her friends don't seem worried about it, which is probably because they remember Ty Lee and her stupid stunts in school.

Still, with her injury it takes her at least ten minutes to drag herself to the top, panting. Katara, Sokka and Suki are already dressed and packing up by the time Ty Lee flops down on the rock.

Katara helps her to her feet and hands her clothes. Ty Lee dresses and combs through her hair with her fingers. She chugs from her Arrowhead water-bottle before slipping back into her worn sneakers walking after her friends.

They trek through the wilderness, taking in the beautiful sights. Ty Lee and Katara cannot stop stealing glances. If there is a such thing as a spark, they have discovered it together.

 **.**

Once Ty Lee gets home, her head is swimming with Katara, literally swimming because it keeps getting mixed up with weird ocean fantasies that Ty Lee is not used to. They exchanged phone numbers and Ty Lee waits anxiously for a text or call, because it would make her life. She lies in bed awake for hours fantasizing about what is so close yet so far away, and does try to keep in mind the fact that she gets so carried away with romance.

She keeps examining her foot, and she thinks that there really must have been something in the water. Ty Lee lays back and rests with the television on.

Before she knows she is asleep, she finds herself in a very strange place. She is in a nightclub, or so she thinks. She is wearing a long red dress that caresses her waist and cleavage. It is beaded with rubies and draped in gold. As she pushes through the wild dancers, she is following Katara.

But she is grabbed by the strong arms before she can do anything, as she gasps for air like a dying fish, and she is dragged into the cerulean spotlight. Ty Lee sees Katara's panicked face in the crowd, as they all cheer for Ty Lee's death.

 _"Kill her, kill her, kill her..."_ cheers the crowd.

The mystery woman arrives and stands in front of Ty Lee. For the first time, Ty Lee sees the woman's eyes – golden against pale skin and rosy lips. She is beyond beautiful with black hair and long, dark eyelashes.

She is so familiar, like a childhood friend that Ty Lee forgot about and ran into a few years later.

In her hand Ty Lee at first thinks she is holding a knife, but then she realizes that it is bright blue fire, burning bright and beautiful. Ty Lee squeezes her eyes shut and braces herself for death.

But, suddenly, she is somewhere else. She lies intertwined with the mystery woman in a strange, very old timey place. They are in a bed that would fit in some movie about royal liaisons, and there are so many golden dragons.

The mystery woman's burning lips press against Ty Lee's and she feels _complete_. This is real, this is a memory, and she is sweating from an encounter as she looks at the light pink clothes resting on the maroon sheets beside her.

Ty Lee wakes up with her heart racing. Why, when she can think only about Katara, are her dreams filled with a woman she has never met, she cannot comprehend.

But the stranger must be the embodiment of some sexual longing. Longing for something exciting and adventurous. The stranger is murderous and colored like blood, and the _fire_ too. Her face is probably from some soap opera that FiFi was watching and Ty Lee fell asleep to and forgot about.

Ty Lee cannot sleep after the dream that made her heart pound and warmed her thighs at the same time, prompting her to get up out of her cozy pink blankets and pull on clothes. She readies herself in the bathroom and cooks French toast for breakfast. There is no doubt in her mind that she needs to get out of the house and keep her mind on something other than the dreams that plague her.


End file.
